How to deal with Thailand watches

[Watchphile]

One would think all Casio watches are manufactured under a climate-controlled environment as otherwise dust would be another problem, so I'm kind of surprised to hear about the issue.

[lunitic]

First, if the modules themselves are sealed, wouldn't attempting desiccation for naught since the desiccant wouldn't be able to pull moisture from the module? And if the module is not sealed, and desiccants can pull moisture from it, wouldn't it just equalize with its environment and get humid again if that's where it lives its life?

[LUW]

First, if the modules themselves are sealed, wouldn't attempting desiccation for naught since the desiccant wouldn't be able to pull moisture from the module?

The moisture is trapped inside the case - it's not the module that has trapped water vapor inside.

And if the module is not sealed, and desiccants can pull moisture from it, wouldn't it just equalize with its environment and get humid again if that's where it lives its life?

If the watch is not pressure sealed that would indeed occur, but these watches are rated for 20 bar of water pressure, so once the air inside the case is dry, it will stay dry until the case is opened.

[Shocker]

Is the watch arriving in this condition? Or does it occur when you're active? Have you tried wearing your watch a notch looser? This could solve the problem. I've never seen one arrive with fogging.. as a retailer, I handle thousands of G's.. defects, but no fogging.

[LUW]

How would wearing the watch looser or tighter get the moisture out of the case ? Sorry, you lost me there.

The problem is trapped moisture (humid air) inside the case, that got in there when the watch was assembled. It's very easy to replicate the problem: put the watch in a glass of hot water (no need to get it boiling) for a minute and pull it out. Immediately after, drop a drop of ice cold water on the crystal. If there's humidity inside (water vapor), the crystal will fog, and as soon as the watch cools the fogging goes away.

[Shocker]

Working with watches over the years, you learn the trends of wear styles. I've only seen this with guys wearing their watch strapped too tightly. You should be able to fit a finger in the band, during Summer wearing. Just something to try. I live in a very humid location, myself. I've never seen a Thai G-Shock with fogging problems.

You didn't answer my question: Does the brand new watch arrive foggy or does it fog only after wearing it? If it's the latter, try wearing it a notch looser the next time you work up a sweat.

[LUW]

Sorry, but I think you're not actually understanding what is going on. The humid air got trapped inside at the factory in Thailand. Wearing it loose, tight, in your pocket or wherever you want, will not counter this. If there's humidity inside (once again = water vapor) and if the watch gets hotter then the air around it it, that vapor will condense at the coolest surface - we see it happen under the crystal, but it would happen the same under the case back if you cooled that part. Wearing it loose will NOT help, as long as you have the case back in contact with your skin. Your ambient humidity will NOT affect this, since the watch is water tight and the vapor is already in there (yeah, imported from Thailand).

It's just a matter of (thermodynamic) physics.

[Shocker]

To clarify: the watch arrives foggy, before you even wear it? This occurs on all Thai watches? But not to models made in Korea, China or Japan?

[LUW]

No, it doesn't "arrive" foggy. It will only happen if the watch is submitted to the conditions I described above. My G-7500 is totally clear right now, but if I heat it up and do the water drop test it will fog.
So far, I only saw this (and heard of this) with Thai watches, but it will happen with any watch assembled in a humid environment. Like others before me, my guess is that the factory in Thailand does not have a very good climate control, and if so, this will happen with all watches made in the humid months of the year.

[Sedi]

once the air inside the case is dry, it will stay dry until the case is opened.

Not really. That's what I wanted to say in my post. Diffusion is always working against us. You can't even be sure that the problem in case of the G-7510 is from the manufacturing process. Might also have been from storing the watch in a humid environment. Since it's an older model that might well be the case IMO. Of course - drying it out will work for some time - can't say for how long however. I don't know how fast diffusion will work on a G-Shock's gaskets. The problem is - liquid water can't get through the seals unless they are damaged, but water in a gaseous state can get through the seals over time. There have been just a few gas-proof watches so far AFAIK - for example the Omega vintage PloProf with it's monocoque case is probably the most famous example. But the Pita "Oceana" is also gas-proof since it has a hermetically sealed case and magnetic hand-setting/winding without any opening in the case. Another way of making a watch completely resistant against fogging would be a hydro-mod of course, and since you open them up anyway I think it would not be that much of an effort to hydro-mod at least some of them - also greatly increases the viewing angle of the display. I kind of like the idea of a hydro-modded G-7510 - I wonder however if the vibration alarm would still work.

cheers, Sedi